Gary Oldman joins Matt Reeves' ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’

Gary Oldman, who is best known to Harry Potter fans as Sirius Black, has signed on to work with director Matt Reeves on the anticipated film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Reeves’ latest movie is the sequel to the 2011 box office success Rise of the Planet of the Apes which starred James Franco and Freida Pinto. Rise ended with Caesar the chimpanzee leading his fellow genetically modified, hyper-intelligent apes out of a science facility to escape into the Redwood forests of California. Meanwhile, humanity stood on the brink of a viral pandemic.

ComingSoon.net reports that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes picks up fifteen years later when the human population has been nearly wiped out by virus and the survivors are in hiding away from the ruling apes. Caesar is living up to his namesake as the powerful head of the new civilization.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Oldman’s role is described as a military man and former police commissioner who is destined to lead a rebel group of human scientists against Caesar and the apes. Interestingly, Oldman has previously played a character with the same occupation, police commissioner James Gordon in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.

Andy Serkis has already signed on to reprise his performance capture role as Caesar. New cast members include 16-year-old Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee - who has worked with director Reeves before in the horror film Let Me In - and Zero Dark Thirty’s Jason Clarke.